Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:1

Which road are we on today?

The way of love?  Hopefully we all are.

Isn’t this interesting?  Follow the way of love and desire the gift of prophecy…?

Of course, Paul is in the midst of a discussion of various gifts and is saying that prophecy is better than tongues in the overall passage… and love is better than any of them.  It isn’t hard to see why love would have such a high position, but prophecy?

Maybe it isn’t as surprising as it seems at first, because prophecy isn’t exactly what most people seem to think it is.  It isn’t telling the future, even though the Old Testament prophets sometimes taught about things to come.  It isn’t just telling wild tales with imagery that is hard to follow, even though that is the way it worked some times.  The gift of prophecy will enable a person to state the Word of God clearly and boldly, and maybe this old world needs more people with this gift!

But then in the New Testament, we are taught to teach the truth in love.  Seems to fit better when we look at it that way, doesn’t it?

Why not try this today: Let’s make a concerted effort to follow the path of love, and share the truth of God’s Word with those around us.  In fact, why not commit an act of kindness somewhere along the way?  Who knows?  Maybe we can bring comfort to someone who will be open to the message of grace that we have to share.  Hey, if we don’t take a chance, we’ll never know what we might have done for His Kingdom, not to mention for another person who needs His love in their life; and none of this requires any special gift or ability.